In 1989, Leslie and Cornelia were two young Berlin students living on opposites sides of the wall. But when the border opened, a shared love of radio brought them together in a friendship that is still alive today.

East Germany never had a lot of cash on hand. What it did have was political prisoners, and plenty of them. So during the Cold War, the communist regime ransomed hundreds of thousands of people to the West in exchange for much-needed hard currency.

India's Mars mission keeps grabbing headlines — including this week, when the probe took this remarkable photo. Meanwhile, the US is shipping more of its oil overseas than at any time in the past 50 years, and that's a good sign gas prices are heading down. And ISIS thwarts US airstrikes with a speedy change in its tactics, in today's Global Scan.

The board game called Bürokratopoly isn't about getting filthy rich, though players might feel filthy after they're done playing. The popular German game was created by dissidents in communist East Germany years ago as a satire about power and corruption. Now it has become a teaching tool for German kids trying to understand what it was like to live in the Communist East.

After the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept YouTube, European young people are hoping for viral success with a campaign to bring world attention back to the conflict on Ukraine's eastern border. Meanwhile, killing is the subject of newly-published scientific research. In this case, the killers, though, are chimps. And a Chinese tennis star retires in her 30s, having brought tennis and a bit of sports freedom to her home country, in this weekend's Global Scan.

Updated

12/24/2013 - 9:30am

It’s nearly seventy years since World War II ended. In that time, many historians have documented what happened to Germany’s Jews under the Nazis. But less attention has been paid to what happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in Germany after the Holocaust – particularly the Jews who settled in the former East Germany, or the GDR as it was called. Now a new German play addresses some of that history.

At the height of the Cold War, a small group of Army personnel monitored communications in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. They'd send the recordings back to NSA headquarters in Washington and — in many ways, are the precursors to the modern surveillance system that has become so controversial.

At the height of the Cold War, a German teen decided he'd fly his single-ending plane deep into the Soviet Union to build a metaphorical bridge between the Germans and the Soviets. He landed in Red Square — and was arrested and sentenced 25 years ago last week.

During the Cold War, all things Western were either forbidden or held in deep suspicion among officials east of the iron curtain. Yet, somehow, the culture of skateboarding that cropped up in California made it into East Berlin, where it thrived. A new documentary looks at that evolution.

For 50-some years, the Cold War dominated life in Russia, Europe and the United State. In the nearly two decades since it ended, though, the physical manifestations of those decades are rapidly disappearing. A museum in California is hoping to hang on to the past and make it real for the future.

East Germany never had a lot of cash on hand. What it did have was political prisoners, and plenty of them. So during the Cold War, the communist regime ransomed hundreds of thousands of people to the West in exchange for much-needed hard currency.

India's Mars mission keeps grabbing headlines — including this week, when the probe took this remarkable photo. Meanwhile, the US is shipping more of its oil overseas than at any time in the past 50 years, and that's a good sign gas prices are heading down. And ISIS thwarts US airstrikes with a speedy change in its tactics, in today's Global Scan.

In 1989, Leslie and Cornelia were two young Berlin students living on opposites sides of the wall. But when the border opened, a shared love of radio brought them together in a friendship that is still alive today.

For 50-some years, the Cold War dominated life in Russia, Europe and the United State. In the nearly two decades since it ended, though, the physical manifestations of those decades are rapidly disappearing. A museum in California is hoping to hang on to the past and make it real for the future.

During the Cold War, all things Western were either forbidden or held in deep suspicion among officials east of the iron curtain. Yet, somehow, the culture of skateboarding that cropped up in California made it into East Berlin, where it thrived. A new documentary looks at that evolution.

At the height of the Cold War, a German teen decided he'd fly his single-ending plane deep into the Soviet Union to build a metaphorical bridge between the Germans and the Soviets. He landed in Red Square — and was arrested and sentenced 25 years ago last week.

At the height of the Cold War, a small group of Army personnel monitored communications in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. They'd send the recordings back to NSA headquarters in Washington and — in many ways, are the precursors to the modern surveillance system that has become so controversial.

Updated

12/24/2013 - 9:30am

It’s nearly seventy years since World War II ended. In that time, many historians have documented what happened to Germany’s Jews under the Nazis. But less attention has been paid to what happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in Germany after the Holocaust – particularly the Jews who settled in the former East Germany, or the GDR as it was called. Now a new German play addresses some of that history.

After the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept YouTube, European young people are hoping for viral success with a campaign to bring world attention back to the conflict on Ukraine's eastern border. Meanwhile, killing is the subject of newly-published scientific research. In this case, the killers, though, are chimps. And a Chinese tennis star retires in her 30s, having brought tennis and a bit of sports freedom to her home country, in this weekend's Global Scan.

The board game called Bürokratopoly isn't about getting filthy rich, though players might feel filthy after they're done playing. The popular German game was created by dissidents in communist East Germany years ago as a satire about power and corruption. Now it has become a teaching tool for German kids trying to understand what it was like to live in the Communist East.

The board game called Bürokratopoly isn't about getting filthy rich, though players might feel filthy after they're done playing. The popular German game was created by dissidents in communist East Germany years ago as a satire about power and corruption. Now it has become a teaching tool for German kids trying to understand what it was like to live in the Communist East.

East Germany never had a lot of cash on hand. What it did have was political prisoners, and plenty of them. So during the Cold War, the communist regime ransomed hundreds of thousands of people to the West in exchange for much-needed hard currency.

After the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept YouTube, European young people are hoping for viral success with a campaign to bring world attention back to the conflict on Ukraine's eastern border. Meanwhile, killing is the subject of newly-published scientific research. In this case, the killers, though, are chimps. And a Chinese tennis star retires in her 30s, having brought tennis and a bit of sports freedom to her home country, in this weekend's Global Scan.

Updated

12/24/2013 - 9:30am

It’s nearly seventy years since World War II ended. In that time, many historians have documented what happened to Germany’s Jews under the Nazis. But less attention has been paid to what happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in Germany after the Holocaust – particularly the Jews who settled in the former East Germany, or the GDR as it was called. Now a new German play addresses some of that history.

In 1989, Leslie and Cornelia were two young Berlin students living on opposites sides of the wall. But when the border opened, a shared love of radio brought them together in a friendship that is still alive today.

At the height of the Cold War, a small group of Army personnel monitored communications in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. They'd send the recordings back to NSA headquarters in Washington and — in many ways, are the precursors to the modern surveillance system that has become so controversial.

India's Mars mission keeps grabbing headlines — including this week, when the probe took this remarkable photo. Meanwhile, the US is shipping more of its oil overseas than at any time in the past 50 years, and that's a good sign gas prices are heading down. And ISIS thwarts US airstrikes with a speedy change in its tactics, in today's Global Scan.

At the height of the Cold War, a German teen decided he'd fly his single-ending plane deep into the Soviet Union to build a metaphorical bridge between the Germans and the Soviets. He landed in Red Square — and was arrested and sentenced 25 years ago last week.

During the Cold War, all things Western were either forbidden or held in deep suspicion among officials east of the iron curtain. Yet, somehow, the culture of skateboarding that cropped up in California made it into East Berlin, where it thrived. A new documentary looks at that evolution.

East Germany never had a lot of cash on hand. What it did have was political prisoners, and plenty of them. So during the Cold War, the communist regime ransomed hundreds of thousands of people to the West in exchange for much-needed hard currency.